Three for Three … Four of the five starting spots for the Cavaliers seem to be pretty locked down. The starting backcourt is set with Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters. Until Andrew Bynum is ready and/or Anthony Bennett gets comfortable as a pro, it’s relatively safe to assume that Tristan Thompson and Anderson Varejao will be the starting 4 and 5. The starting small forward spot is still up for grabs and, on Friday, Coach Brown maintained that it’s an ongoing competition.

Asked if Earl Clark will be given every opportunity to earn the starting 3 spot, Brown responded, “Earl will be. Alonzo (Gee) will be. And CJ Miles will be. Nobody’s going to be favored, nobody’s going to be a front-runner or anything like that. Right now, I look at those three guys as competing for the small forward spot.”

So Long, Southpaw … Sports Illustrated just published an article on Tristan Thompson, making the unprecedented mid-career switch from lefty to righty. The media was able to watch the third-year big shoot free throws and his stoke looks very fluid and far less line-drive-ish. Thompson, who hasn’t yet seen the piece, talked a little bit about how the move’s going.

“It’s going really good,” said Thompson. “Like I said, there’s no blueprint for when it’s gonna be like Kyle Korver, but I’m going to keep working every day and just get better because I guess I’m the first one to do this at the pro level. So I just have to be patient. A good first step was being able to play in an international game and using my right hand to shoot free throws, and it worked out pretty well for me. But this is the NBA now, and I have to be able to go out and make shots and make free throws with my right hand.”

Hoops for the Troops … After three days of double-sessions, the Cavaliers practiced only once on Friday because of the Wine and Gold Scrimmage that’ll take place on Saturday afternoon at the Lou Higgins Center on the campus of Baldwin Wallace. The annual scrimmage will be a little different this year in that it’ll be held exclusively for local members of the military. But fans can still stream the game live on Cavs.com.

Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. ET.

Today’s Randomness … I was at the Browns-Bills game on Thursday night and can’t remember the last time the Stadium was rocking like that. With the Indians rolling snake-eyes the previous evening at Progressive Field, the city needed that win. The injury to Brian Hoyer was tragic, but heading into the weekend in first place is pretty sweet.

Personally, I needed the Browns to beat Buffalo after their fans came to Cleveland last season and taunted ours. That should never happen. I thought Bills fans and Browns fans would be simpatico – based on our common postseason heartbreak – but that wasn’t the case. They rolled into our tailgating area and they called us names. This year, Cleveland got the last laugh. And it looks like the Browns are starting to turn the corner.